Rising New York rapper Angel Haze turned a lot of heads when she boldly recounted her experience as a victim of sexual assault in “Cleaning Out My Closet,” which sampled the Eminem song of the same name. But truth be told, she’d already developed a shining rep for her astounding verbal ability, as evidenced in spades on her fierce “Reservation” EP, and handily advanced in her new video for “Gossip Folks,” a remake of Missy Elliott’s tongue-twisting 2003 single. Ever up for a challenge, Haze has stocked her new Classick mixtape with her takes on, well, classics: “Song Cry” by Jay-Z, “Love of My Life” by Erykah Badu, and “Doo Wop (That Thing)” by Lauren Hill. While her nightmarish “Werkin’ Girls” clip was a seemingly Odd Future-influenced surreal freakout, the “Gossip Folks” one is barebones: a fittingly uncluttered canvas for a song that already, impressively, has enough going on. Check out the track list below, and catch up on Brandon Soderberg’s glowing deconstruction of Classick.
Angel Haze, Classick track list:
1. “Bitch Bad” (Lupe Fiasco)
2. “Gossip Folks” (Missy Elliott)
3. “Song Cry” (Jay-Z)
4. “Love Of My Life” (Erykah Badu)
5. “Doo Wop (That Thing)” (Lauryn Hill)
6. “Cleaning Out My Closet” (Eminem)
